Kai'Sa/Background
* * ( ) |render = Kai’Sa Render.png |gender = Female |race = Human (Altered by The Void) |birthplace = Sai, Shurima (Father: Kassadin) |residence = Unknown (No Fixed Abode) |occupation = * Assassin * Balance Preserver * (Galactic Mercenary ) * (Royal Space Military Lieutenant ) |faction = * The Void (The Preservers of Valoran) * (Royal Space Military ) |related = Kassadin, Malzahar |explore =* Daughter of the Void * Breach * * The Girl Who Came Back * Steel Valkyries }} "My appearance may frighten you, but make no mistake—I am on your side, and we fight to the bitter end." - Claimed by the Void when she was only a child, Kai'Sa managed to survive through sheer tenacity and strength of will. Her experiences have made her a deadly hunter and, to some, the harbinger of a future they would rather not live to see. Having entered into an uneasy symbiosis with a living Void carapace, the time will soon come when she must decide whether to forgive those mortals who would call her a monster, and defeat the coming darkness together... or simply to forget, as the Void consumes the world that left her behind. Lore Perhaps the most remarkable thing about the fearless hunter of the Void known as Kai'Sa is how unremarkably her life began. She did not descend from tribal warriors hardened by generations of battle, nor was she summoned from distant lands to fight the unknowable menace lurking beneath Shurima. Rather, she was just an ordinary girl, born to loving parents who called the unforgiving southern deserts their home. This was where she would spend her days playing with friends, and her nights dreaming about her place in the world. In her tenth summer, the young girl Kaisa's destiny would be changed forever. Had she been older, she might have noticed more of the unusual events that had begun to unfold in the villages—every day, her mother urged her stay home, for fear of strangers wandering the land, demanding tribute to dark powers below. Kaisa and her friends did not believe it, until one evening they came upon a pen of sacrificial goats bought from nomad herdsmen. Using the knife her father had given her on her eighth birthday, she cut their tethers and set the animals free into a nearby canyon. It seemed like a harmless prank, until the unthinkable happened. The ground began to quake, flashes of light scorched the sky, and the children ran for their lives. The Void had been awakened. A great rift split the bedrock, swallowing up Kaisa's village and everyone in it, leaving nothing behind but sand pierced with twisted columns as black as night. Kaisa regained consciousness to find herself trapped underground. She was filled with crippling fear, but there was still hope; she could hear the faint cries of other survivors. They called out to each other feebly, repeating their names one by one like a mantra. Sadly, by the third day, hers was the only voice left. Her friends and family were all gone. She was alone in the darkness. It was only when all seemed lost that she saw the light. She followed it down. Along the way, she found meager sustenance. Amid the debris left by the collapse were ragged waterskins, rotting peaches—anything to keep starvation at bay. But, eventually, Kaisa's hunger was replaced by fear once again. She found herself in a vast cavern, illuminated by an otherworldly purplish glow, and she could see she was no longer alone. Skittering creatures swarmed in the depths. The first that came for Kaisa was no bigger than her, and she clutched her knife in both hands, ready to defend herself. The voidling horror knocked her to the ground, but she drove the blade into its pulsing heart, and the two of them tumbled deeper into the abyss. The creature was seemingly dead, but its unnatural skin had taken hold upon the flesh of her arm. The dark shell tingled, but was hard as steel to the touch. In a panic, Kaisa broke her knife trying to remove it. But when the larger beasts came, she used it as a shield to make her escape. Soon enough, she realized the shell was becoming part of her. As her daily struggle to survive drew out into years, this second skin grew with her, and so too did her resolve. Now she had more than hope, she had a plan. Fight hard. Stay alive. Find a way back. She was transformed, from frightened girl to fearless survivor, from prey to predator. For almost a decade, she has lived between two worlds in an attempt to keep them apart—the Void hungers to consume not only the scattered villages of Shurima, but the whole of Runeterra. She will not allow that to happen. Though she has slain countless Void-constructs, she understands that many of the people she protects would see her as a monster herself. Indeed, her name has begun to pass into legend, an echo of the ancient horrors of doomed Icathia. No longer Kaisa… but Kai'Sa. ;Breach :Hunter or prey? The lines get blurred when Kai’Sa must hunt down a pack of deadly predators. Cover= |-| 01= |-| 02= |-| 03= |-| 04= |-| 05= |-| 06= |-| 07= |-| 08= |-| 09= |-| 10= |-| 11= |-| 12= |-| 13= |-| 14= |-| 15= |-| 16= ;The Girl Who Came Back "Listen to me," I tell the little girl who found me here, beside the pit. "I need you to hear me. There isn't much time." She leans forward, without a hint of fear in her eyes. "Tell me what to do." I like her. A slight smile breaks across my face, for the first time in what seems like… forever. "Not this," I say, gesturing to the arrow gripped in her hand. She holds it like a spear. I was only a child when the Void took me from my family, so I didn't know any better either. But the rest of them, they were so careless. Sacrifices, offerings, tributes—whatever you want to call them, they were never going to work. It isn't some god, appeased by gifts and prayers. It just wants to devour everything. "You want to kill it? You want to destroy it?" I ask her. She nods. "Then starve it." The sensation of needles on my flesh grows stronger, as if in response to these words. The threatening presence is closing in around us, and my second skin constricts, pulling taut as a bow. I take one last deep breath before they come. The sand begins to shift, puckering and falling away, like in an hourglass. Eerie pulses of light filter into the sky, as the construct-creatures heave themselves up into the Shuriman night, screeching and drooling. I steady myself, charging the energy inside my shoulder pods. I grit my teeth, and release it. Bright blooms of heat and pain find their targets quickly, raining down, stopping the creatures in their tracks, flinging them aside. The air is filled with an acid reek, and the hiss of melting chitin. Soon there is nothing left of them. I wait for the needles' itch to stop, but it doesn't. The girl is crouched beside me, ready. She probably cannot understand what she is seeing. "Does it hurt?" she whispers, her hand reaching out for the glowing scales on my arm. I pull back reflexively. She doesn't even flinch. "Sometimes," I confess. Not too far away, her village sleeps on unaware, for the most part. Curiosity had no doubt gotten the better of this little girl. So many stories, fables both frightening and fantastical. The voidling beasts hunting in the dead of night, calling to one another. She just wanted to see for herself. See what lurks beyond the rocks, see the thing her people both fear and adore at the same time. My skin tightens again. The needles, the constant itch… I blink. "I'm sorry, you didn't tell me your name." She stands up proudly, still brandishing the arrow. "I'm Illi. I came to protect my family from the monster." She is no more than ten years of age. "Well, Illi—sometimes running is the best thing to do." "But you don't run," she says, narrowing her eyes, "do you?" A clever one, this girl. I shake my head. "Not anymore." "Then I won't either!" Illi proclaims. Brave as well. She has no idea what they're dealing with. None of them do. All these things her people have done to rid themselves of the creatures, they were just ringing the dinner bell. "You need to tell them, Illi. You need to make them understand. No more dancing beneath the new moon. And no more animals tied to stakes. The Void has no mercy to offer—it feeds or it dies." The day I came to understand this, was when I knew I had a chance. Maybe that's why I survive, while so many others perish. But survival always has its price. Ever since I found my way back, I've been paying it. "Look…" the girl whispers. "They are coming to find us." I don't have to look. I knew they would come. By instinct, the carapace draws over my face. Illi stares up at me. "Don't be frightened," I say to her in a voice now so twisted and monstrous, it could have the opposite meaning. "Of what?" she asks. I find myself wearing a smile she cannot see. There are only a handful of people who've ever seen me in the flesh, or whatever it is that now covers my body. All but two of them are dead. Illi's people appear to be capable hunters. Only the capable live out here. I can see where she got her bravery. Their torches twinkle in the night. "Papa!" she calls out to the searching villagers, without warning me. "I found her! The girl who came back!" They're heading toward us now, weapons at the ready, fire in their eyes. "Illi!" her father yells, nocking an arrow to his bow. "Get away from that... thing!" She looks up at me again, confused. For every little girl like Illi, there are ten others who would run the other way. Or worse. I know what most people say about me. I've seen their fear scrawled across mud walls, scratched into the canyon rocks. Beware the girl who came back a monster. They don't know a thing about me. To them, I'm just something they do not want to face—a living, walking, fighting embodiment of what they fear most. I guess that's why they added the mark to my name. Ten years ago, I was only Kaisa—very much like Illi, hopeful about a future as limitless as the stars in the night sky. That future died the day the Void dragged me down. The needles are back. Illi releases my hand just as my luminous weapons materialize over my arms. "Go to him," I tell her. "Go to your father." "Illi, run!" her father pleads. He draws back his bowstring with trembling hands. "No!" she yells, turning to me. "I don't run anymore." I usher her forwards, keeping my eyes trained on the villagers. "No, Illi, you were born a fighter. They will need you." After a few steps, she turns back. "What do I tell them?" "Tell them... Tell them to be ready." The Void has taken so much from me, but I refuse to let it take everything. These moments, where kindness and humanity shine through, where innocence and trust extinguish fear—they fill me with hope that we can defeat the rivers of timeless poison that flow beneath the world. The first time I escaped the abyss, I did it for myself. Maybe one day, it will be for them.